Vegetos
(An International Journal of Plant Research & Biotechnology)
(eISSN: 2229-4473)
Morphological characteristics and molecular identification of Chloranthus nervosus Collett & Hemsl. (Syn. Chloranthus flavus D.T. Liu & G. Chen) from Vietnam
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Van Chen Tran, Quynh Tran Thi Thuy, Duy Huynh Thanh, Duc Duong Phan Nguyen, Bao Nguyen Quoc, Khai Hoang Dac, Dat Pham Thi Thanh
Research Articles | Published: 30 June, 2026
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Keywords: n Chloranthus nervosusn , n Chloranthus flavusn , DNA_Barcode, ITS, n rbcLn
Abstract
Chloranthus nervosus Collett & Hemsl. is a wild plantin the Chloranthaceae family. It is widely used in folk medicine to treat problems related to inflammation and pain. Currently, the macromorphology and molecular identification of C. nervosus collected in Vietnam are still limited in publicly accessible databases. Therefore, this study aimed to characterize the morphology and evaluate the ITS and rbcL sequences of C. nervosus collected from Vietnam. Macromorphological characterizations were noted and compared with previous studies. The total DNA of C. nervosus was used to amplify the ITS and rbcL regions by the CTAB method. Macromorphologically, C. nervosus differs from other Chloranthus species. Particularly, it’s distinguished by having a branched stem, blade leaf size (6–20 × 4–14 cm), long spike (5.5–10.0 cm), long stamens (5.0–12 mm), and long fruit (3–5 mm). The nuclear sequence of C. nervosus for ITS was 594 bp, while the final chloroplast sequence length for rbcL was 529 bp. The sequenced amplicons (97.6% and 100% similar to GenBank’s C. nervosus ITS and rbcL, respectively) demonstrated the ITS and rbcL markers’ ability to identify C. nervosus. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the collected C. nervosus formed a tight cluster with multiple accessions of GenBank’s C. nervosus with bootstrap values of 70 for ITS and 71 for rbcL. The results demonstrated that the C. nervosus (Vietnam) are closely related and share a common genetic origin, all belonging to C. nervosus in GenBank. These results suggest a strong genetic affinity and provide molecular evidence for species-level identification. These DNA barcode markers may also be used to differentiate between Chloranthaceae species.
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Author Information
Faculty of Traditional Medicine, University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam